Brecon

Coordinates: 51°56′48″N 3°23′27″W / 51.94677°N 3.39086°W / 51.94677; -3.39086

Brecon (Welsh: Aberhonddu), archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town and community in Powys, Mid Wales, with a population in 2001 of 7,901, increasing to 8,250 at the 2011 Census. Historically it was the county town of Brecknockshire; although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of the County of Powys, it remains an important local centre. Brecon is the third largest town in Powys, after Newtown and Ystradgynlais. It lies north of the Brecon Beacons mountain range, but is just within the Brecon Beacons National Park.

History

Early history

The Welsh name, Aberhonddu, means "mouth of the Honddu". It is derived from the River Honddu, which meets the River Usk near the town centre, a short distance away from the River Tarell which enters the Usk a few hundred metres upstream. After the Dark Ages the original Welsh name of the kingdom in whose territory Brecon stands was (in modern orthography) "Brycheiniog", which was later anglicised to Brecknock or Brecon, and probably derives from Brychan, the eponymous founder of the kingdom.

Brecon Beacons

The Brecon Beacons (Welsh: Bannau Brycheiniog) is a mountain range in South Wales. In a narrow sense, the name refers to the range of Old Red Sandstone peaks popular with walkers which lie to the south of Brecon. Sometimes referred to as "the central Beacons" they include South Wales' highest mountain, Pen y Fan. The range forms the central section of the Brecon Beacons National Park (Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog), a designation which also encompasses ranges both to the east and the west of "the central Beacons". This much wider area is also commonly referred to as "the Brecon Beacons", and it includes the Black Mountains, Wales to the east as well as the Black Mountain (range) to the west. The highest peaks include Fan Brycheiniog to the west and Pen y Fan in the central part. They share the same basic geology as the central range, and so exhibit many similar features, such the north-facing escarpment and glacial features such as lakes and cwms below the escarpment. They all fall within the border of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

National park

A national park is a park in use for conservation purposes. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea: the conservation of 'wild nature' for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and its World Commission on Protected Areas, has defined "National Park" as its Category II type of protected areas.

While this type of national park had been proposed previously, the United States established the first "public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people", Yellowstone National Park, in 1872. Although Yellowstone was not officially termed a "national park" in its establishing law, it was always termed such in practice and is widely held to be the first and oldest national park in the world. The first area to use "national park" in its creation legislation was the US's Mackinac Island, in 1875. Australia's Royal National Park, established in 1879, was the world's third official national park. In 1895 ownership of Mackinac Island was transferred to the State of Michigan as a state park and national park status was consequently lost. As a result, Australia's Royal National Park is by some considerations the second oldest national park now in existence.

ITV Wales & West

ITV Wales and West, previously known as HTV, refers to the Independent Television franchise area until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom.

There is no channel, past or present, named "ITV Wales and West". The licence relates to a 'dual region', meaning that the franchise area was divided into two regions, each of which must be served by distinct and separate ITV programme services as more fully defined within the licence. Today, those services are known as ITV Cymru Wales and ITV West Country (since ITV West and ITV Westcountry merged into a single region). They are provided by ITV plc which owns and operates the two services through its subsidiary ITV Broadcasting Ltd.

From January 2014, the dual-region licence was split in two, with ITV Cymru Wales for Wales and ITV West Country covering the West of England. Both licences remain held by ITV Broadcasting Ltd and the legal names of the former HTV companies have not yet been changed again.

History